Singapore Sling

The Singapore Sling is widely credited to Ngiam Tong Boon, a Hainanese-Chinese bartender at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, Singapore, who is generally said to have created it sometime between 1899, when he began working at the hotel, and 1915. It was originally known as a gin sling, from the sling family — a simple mix of spirit, sugar, and water already common by the late 18th century — before taking on the Singapore name. One popular account holds that Ngiam gave the drink its pink color so it would resemble fruit juice, letting women drink it discreetly at a time when female patrons were not expected to be seen drinking alcohol in public.

Cocktail historian David Wondrich has argued the drink actually predates the Raffles connection, tracing references to a "sling" in Singapore as early as 1897 and suggesting the cocktail was not tied to the hotel until the 1920s. No original written recipe by Ngiam survives: Raffles Hotel stopped serving the drink after the 1930s and the original recipe was lost, so the hotel later reconstructed it from a visitor's note from 1936. Bar guides from the 1920s and 1930s vary considerably on the ingredients beyond gin and cherry brandy, with some adding Bénédictine, bitters, or other juices. Some historians question the pineapple juice of the widely served modern version as a later embellishment, and the formula the hotel serves today is believed to date from the 1970s.